Why I am Not Religious

I had an acquaintance ask me today if I believed in God.  When I told her that I am not a religious person, she asked me what that meant.  I told her that I don't know the truth.  I don't know if there is a God or if Jesus was a real person, or if Buddhism or Muslim had it correct.  She proceeded to tell me that I was a heathen, and that I was sure to burn in Hell, but she'd do me the favor of praying for my soul so that God will grant me forgiveness when it comes to my final judgement.

That just FRIES me!  I am not a religious person.  But I don't judge people who disagree with me and are religious.  I don't force my thoughts and beliefs on them.  I actually respect them because they do have their beliefs/values/ethics whatever and follow them, just like, I would hope they respect me for having my beliefs.  It really bugs me when people who disagree, especially in their religious beliefs, are judgmental and offer up their prayers for salvation, when and where they are not asked for.  It doesn't bother me that they believe differently than I do.  I can sit down and have a conversation about what I believe and why I believe and am open to hearing their thoughts too.  But when they force their beliefs on me, and/or tell me I'm a bad person for believing differently than they do, and/or offer to pray for me because they're being judgmental, it really, really, really, really bugs the &$^* out of me.  So....

Here's why I'm not a religious person.

Growing up, I went to church occasionally with my mom.  Neither of my parents were religious (especially not my dad).  But my mom believed that there was a higher being and wanted us (my sister and I) to be able to make our own opinion.  So we'd go to church with friends sometimes.  Many of those times, I noticed that there was a lot of religious bashing.  "All Muslims are evil,"  "Buddhists are uneducated,"  "Jewish people are greedy," etc.  It wasn't only the bashing of different religions vs. Christianity.  I've heard the Catholic vs. Protestant vs. Mormon vs. whatever else there is under the "Christianity" umbrella bashing as well.  Ummmmm hello, those all read the Bible, have the same fundamental beliefs, but just interpret the Bible differently and observe in their own ways.  Is that really a bad thing?  Does that necessarily make that Catholic man more right/wrong than that Mormon woman?  Maybe all the Christians have it wrong.  Maybe Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Muslim is the accurate religion.  The thing is, no one knows for sure!  Many times the term "faith" is used to say that the person is religious, but by its very own definition, "faith" is a belief based on the unknown or unproven.  It's a blind belief on what you think happened.  And the thing is, I don't know what to believe.  Do I believe that there is a god?  Yes.  But is that god the Christian "God", the Buddhist "Buddha", the Muslim "Allah" or some other religion's "God" or some god that doesn't have a religion?  The answer is I don't know and neither does anyone else for sure.

And another thing I just want to put out there, because sometimes, when I've talked to people about this, I get the "How can you think that Muslim is a religion that can be correct?  They're all bombers and are all evil."  So here are my thoughts on that.... Sure Muslims have their extremists who do horrible things in the name of their religion, but so do the Christians.  Does Westboro Baptist Church ring any bells?  Every religion has their wackos who take their beliefs and values too far to the extreme.  Does that make one religion better than others?  In my book, no it does not... It just makes those wackos, wackos who like to use their religion to do bad things.

So there you have it.  I am not a religious person.  Think of me as you will.  Will you respect me and my beliefs?  Or, like the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this post, will you judge me and pray for my salvation?  If you do pray for me, that's your right and I encourage you to do so, just please, don't tell me, because I'm not asking for it.  Thanks!